To access the End, the player must go through the process of finding a stronghold using eyes of ender, finding the portal room, and activating the end portal in the end portal room. The room consists of a 5x5 square of end portal frames, with the corners cut out, making a total of 12. The portal hangs over a lava pool, with a staircase leading up to it. A silverfishspawner sits on top of the staircase.

The player can activate the portal by placing 12 eyes of ender into the 12 portal frames. Once all the eyes of ender are placed, the portal will activate and let out a loud roar. As soon as it is activated, the portal will destroy all blocks and entities in the central 3x3 square, including bedrock or another portal frame, and replace them with end portal blocks. As soon as the player jumps into the portal, they will immediately arrive in the End.

The End consists of one large island surrounded at a distance by many smaller islands, all mainly comprised of end stone. There is a gap between the central island and the outer islands of about 1000 blocks with nothing but the void.

The starless sky and the void of the End are both composed of a blank, static pattern. The day-night cycle is absent in the End, similar to the Nether, being replaced by a constant dim light.

Most items and blocks function in the End exactly as they do in the Overworld, with a few notable exceptions:

All players begin their exploration of the End with the main island. Unlike Nether portals, entering the end portal will instantly teleport the player to the End, giving no time to back out. Upon arrival in the End, the player will spawn on a 5×5×1 obsidian platform with 3 air blocks above it. The platform can generate on the island, within it, or at a short distance from it, close enough to throw an ender pearl to reach the island.

Once the player enters the End, there is no way back unless they either die or defeat the ender dragon. The dragon will spawn naturally and fly around above a number of towers of obsidian arranged in a circle around the central fountain, which fills up at the end of the battle. On top of each tower lies an end crystal, some of which are protected by cages of iron bars. These crystals will heal the dragon, but can be destroyed by hitting it, for example with a sword, or by shooting certain projectiles at it, for example an arrow, a trident or even a snowball.

Once defeated, the dragon will rise up into the sky and disintegrate, with bright beams of light flashing from its body. It will then explode, drop up to 70 levels worth of experience orbs, activate the exit portal and generate an end gateway portal, giving the player access to the End’s outer islands. Atop the portal lies a dragon egg. After killing the dragon, it can be respawned an unlimited number of times by placing four end crystals on the sides of the exit portal. Every time the player respawns and slays the dragon, another gateway portal will be generated, up to a maximum of 20; however, it will not drop another egg.

The End’s outer islands are clustered around the main island.

Once the player enters the exit portal, the "end poem" will be displayed, therefore "completing" the game. The player will then respawn in the Overworld and may return to the End through the same portal; the End will remain in the same state as the player left it. The obsidian platform is regenerated each time a player enters the End, meaning that any blocks or block entities placed in the 5×5×3 space above the platform will be destroyed and replaced with air blocks.

The End's outer islands are much more interesting and diverse than the main island. When a player enters one of the gateway portals that generate after killing the dragon, they are instantly teleported over the 1000 block void to the outer islands. These gateway portals are easiest to enter through the use of ender pearls, due to the one block tall gap between the bedrock blocks, but can also be entered by placing water and swimming through. There are other ways of getting to the outer islands, such as flying the 1000 blocks with elytra wings and rockets (assuming the player already has an elytra), making a redstone spaceship, or even possibly making a one-thousand-block-long bridge; however these ways of crossing the void are extremely inefficient. In the Legacy Console Edition, the inner and outer islands are surrounded by barriers, meaning the only way to get through islands is through the end gateway.

The outer islands vary in size. There are occasional “mini islands” in the gaps between the larger ones, generally with nothing on them (occasionally they generate end gateways). The larger islands can also vary in size, but are generally a hundred to several hundred blocks wide. The gaps between these islands are generally short enough that players can travel between them via ender pearls.

The End is home to only 3 naturally occurring mobs. Endermen will spawn naturally throughout the entire dimension. The ender dragon only spawns once naturally on the central island, but can be respawned by placing 4 end crystals on each side of the exit portal. Shulkers will only appear on the outer islands, within end cities and do not respawn once killed. Other mobs, excluding bosses, may be sent into the End through an end portal.

The center of the End is a large, asteroid-like island composed entirely of end stone, floating in the void. At a distance of 1000 blocks away, an expanse of more islands begins, away from the main island. These consist of large islands, about the size of the main island, and smaller ones, which are usually very thin and small.

The outer end islands are found 1000 blocks away from the central island. They vary in size from large islands to smaller "mini islands". Generated structures such as End cities and End ships spawn here, along with chorus trees. The player can be taken to the end islands through the End gateway.

The obsidian platform is a 5 by 5 square of obsidian that is generated once a player enters the End. (Note that if the obsidian is destroyed, or if a block is placed on top of it, when the player enters the End, the obsidian will be restored and any blocks on top of it will be replaced with air.)

Chorus trees are tall, coral-like blocks that spawn vastly throughout the outer islands. They are composed of chorus plants and chorus fruit. Similar to bamboo, breaking one part causes all plants above the tree to break.

This biome is used to generate the circle of radius 1000 centered at the 0,0 coordinates in the End. The End central island is generated at the center of this circle, and it's surrounded by a complete vacuum all the way to the edge of the biome. Most of the End features are exclusive to that island, including the ender dragon, the obsidian pillars, the end crystals, the 5×5 spawn platform, the exit portal and the 20 central end gateways. Large amounts of endermen spawn in this biome. Most of the End's structure is provided by the dimension itself rather than the biome. It does not rain or snow in this biome, unlike the other low temperature biomes. The outer islands in the End can be accessed using the end gateway portal after the ender dragon has been defeated. If the biome is used for a superflat world, the sky will be practically black, and only endermen will spawn at night.

This biome generates as part of the outer islands of the End, forming the gradual slope from the hilltops of each island down to the cliffs around the edge. End cities will generate here, but chorus trees do not.

This biome generates as part of the outer islands of the End, forming the outer rims of each island, with steep cliffs below the edge. Neither end cities nor chorus trees will be generated in this biome.

Notch believed that Survival mode should have some sort of goal, which he had not yet formulated: "While it could be fun to just see how long you can survive in survival mode, I believe there might be a need for some kind of goal. Make the most money in a month? Kill a big evil mob in the shortest time? I don’t know yet."

Added a map type called "Floating." It generated floating islands full of terrain based on the selected map theme. Falling from these islands meant death, as the "surface" was covered in bedrock. Map types were later removed in Infdev.

Notch first mentioned the End with his comment regarding the theoretical name-change of the endermen - some players petitioned Mojang to have the mob renamed "Far Landers", a reference to the Far Lands. He joked that instead of renaming the mobs Far Landers, he was more likely to change the name of the Far Lands to "the End".

Reddit user "cptqwashi" posted the idea that the new dimension would be called "the Ender", and would be home to the endermen and ender dragons. Notch soon gave more information and said that cptqwashi was "100% correct."[1] However, it was later revealed that it was just called "the End" and that there would be only one ender dragon there.[2]

The original concept of the Sky Dimension was officially rebranded as "the End."

Several years later, Jeb explained the reason behind the shift from the Sky Dimension to The End: "[The Sky Dimension] didn't work so well because of how light is calculated [...] The Sky Dimension originally had this top down light that the Overworld has, so you get like shadows in caves and such. But performance wise, it didn't work - it was extremely slow. So we removed the sun – now everything is evenly lit unless you’ve got a torch."[3]

An ender dragon spawned near a portal that it would destroy, but end portal blocks would continue to function even if the frame was destroyed. The ability to create end portal frame blocks in Creative Singleplayer mode was also removed.

Added the End. Obsidian pillars are generated in a spiral circling. The bedrock shell of the Exit portal generates when the player enters the End, but is only activated when the ender dragon is killed.

In other languages

Content is available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.Minecraft content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Mojang and its licensors. All rights reserved.
This site is a part of Wikia, Inc. and is not affiliated with Mojang.